Mad Men returns with its sizzling finale season opener on Sunday (April 13, 2014) and having already seen preview copies, the critics have teased that Matthew Weiner's series bow could be something really, really special. The time we saw Jon Hamm's Don Draper, he was at a loose end, down on his luck and rudderless.

Mad Men season 7Jon Hamm as Don Draper

The sneak peeks we've seen of season seven suggests Don may have dusted himself down and got back on the wagon, but how will TV history remember the brash and brilliant creative director?

"There haven't been a lot of examples in recent history," Hamm told TIME magazine when asked if he saw anything admirable in Draper's character, "He's taken two steps back for every one step forward. What I find admirable about him is that he's a creative guy and he sticks to his guns creatively. In his own way he's an artist and he wants to be taken that way, even though he works in a very commercial, no pun intended, medium. That's probably the only thing I can come up with."

Is Hamm surprised by how many Mad Men fans actually root for the guy? 

"...people like Walter White, too and the guy's a murderer," the actor said, "People like Tony Soprano, another murderer. There's a vicarious thrill to seeing these people do bad things on television and mostly get away with it. People love Omar [the stickup man from The Wire]. You like the bad guys sometimes if they're not too bad or if you feel like there's a heart of gold somehow."

The first half of Mad Men season 7 - titled 'The Beginning' begins on April 13, with the final instalments - titled 'The End of An Era' - bowing in 2015.

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